Elephant and Castle isn’t exactly well known for its thriving Chinese community and so Dragon Castle is a great surprise for those craving Chinese food on the south side of the river. You enter the restaurant through one of two doors alongside a towering red gate fronted by two standard Chinese lions only to enter a small foyer entrance. Compared to the other restaurants found in Chinatown, I thought this place looked much larger in space.

Given the large spaces, I thought the waiters and waitresses would push carts around though it turns out I was wrong. Instead, you walk down a large and grandiose path placed alongside the wall of the stretched out room and then shown to one of the tables clustered next to each other on the other, ordering from a small menu.

The attendants really earn their service in this place. Unlike many other dim sum places, our pot of tea always remained piping hot, constantly filled without any requests. The little parcels arrived at a steady pace without the sudden overcrowding other places give you and they quickly whisk the dishes away as soon as you’re completely done and, most importantly, not when you’re almost done with your chopsticks still picking up the food.

The food is excellent value and the quality reasonable though I wouldn’t claim it’s the best that I’ve had. The dim sum menu isn’t as overwhelming as many other places, instead keeping to a core set of favourable dim sum favourites. We also managed to order a main dish that remained off the dim sum menu and they seemed happy to oblige.

Details: Dragon Castle
Found at: 100 Walworth Road, SE17 1JL, London
Highlights: Decent quality dim sum at extremely reasonable prices in the place you’d least expect it.
Room for improvement: Would be a much better experience if they used carts to wheel food around for a more authentic experience.
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10